Lady Katharine is trapped between two impossible choices. Either she will marry the cousin she despises, or marry Philip, to whom she was pledged in childhood. The prospect of staying at her family estate with her uncle and cousin is so unfavorable that she chooses Philip to avoid an immediate attachment to her cousin. Suddenly, the accidental deaths of her traveling companions offer her the chance she has awaited. With no one left alive to vouch for her identity, she hatches a brilliant plan to exchange identities with her lady's maid, who was killed in the accident. But when the impersonation fools Philip, formerly her betrothed, she learns that it might have been a terrible mistake. Lady Katherine soon finds herself like a spider caught in her own web. When she is discovered in her lie, she must confess all, with disastrous results that leave her to wonder if she'll ever regain Philip's trust.